French Facade

"Write a short short (500 words maximum) in which the TV plays a role. Let the words/images on the screen interact with or reflect on the situation in the story. Your characters can be watching TV or it can be background noise."

Les Miserables has always brought me more joy than James Bond or Mean Girls. I grabbed it instinctually the night when Megan called and told me to pack a bag because ‘the deed had been done.’

We’ve been at the cabin for over two weeks now and this is the only movie we have. It’s VHS and skips a little, but it’s better than the silence or static that normally floods the air. The end of Act 1 flashes across the screen with the victorious rendition of ‘One Day More.’ I stand up and my shake my left arm, coaxing blood to return into my numbed fingers that for the past hour have been trapped as a pillow/embrace under Megan.

“I’m gunna light up a smoke before we start Act II, you wanna join?” I pull the pack out of my pocket and shake the empty lighter to life. It sparks and I open the door to the porch. We both sit on the wooden bench and pass the Marbolo back and forth, cold fingertips bumping and bare feet dancing on the cool wood. The lyrics to ‘A Heart Full of Love” were floating in the air back inside, “Cosette I don't know what to say. Then make no sound. I am lost! I am found! A heart full of love!”

“We both know I’ll never be able to go back home, not after what I did,” her voice pulled me away from the music, “Where do we go from here John?”

I can’t bring myself to look up into her broken eyes so I take an excessively long drag on the cigarette, burnt paper crackling but not long enough to give me escape. I flick the burning butt onto the pavement and begin,

“Megan, I don’t know what to say anymore. If I don’t get back into town soon it will look damn suspicious. It’s been two whole weeks! My sister says that Meadowbrook is still in shock, the police are completely dumbfounded by your murder. You planned it all perfectly but what happens when they don’t find your body? What happens when the police discover the murder didn’t really happen!” I stopped talking. This is the first time I’ve directly said the M word to her.

The TV inside had progressed and in our wintry silence we could hear Javert singing of the beauty of the stars. I look over at her handsome freckled face; she’s looking up at the heavens in silence. She looked older than eternity. We sat still as two more songs played on the screen back inside. I look over again at Megan and realize she’s staring at me. She dug her cold fingers into mine and we sat together, unsure of what the future will bring. The closing chords of the finale offer us hope in their promise, “For the wretched of the earth. There is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise.”